By IANS
Bhubaneswar : Clashes between two groups of Muslims over a local burial ground delayed the burial of a body by 12 hours in Orissa’s Keonjhar district, police said Sunday.
Fifty-years-old Nazir Hussein, a resident of Champua town, died Saturday morning in his home. His family members and relatives went to bury his body at the nearest burial ground.
But a group of villagers from the same community restrained them from doing so.
Keeping the body outside the burial ground, relatives and supporters of Nazir went to the local Champua police station, 350 km from here, to seek permission to bury the body. But the police allegedly refused permission.
When they were returning with the body in the evening, some people from a rival group allegedly attacked them. A clash ensued in which four people from both the groups were hurt, a senior district police official told IANS.
The body was buried 12 hours later at a place located nearly four km from the village burial ground after the intervention of the local police, he said.
The village has two Muslim groups Ahlehadis and Hanfia. Several members of both the groups were injured in a clash September last year over prayer in a village mosque.